The Biggest Mistake Salespeople Make—And How to Fix It
Too many salespeople fall into the same trap: leading calls with themselves, not the customer. The urge to introduce a product, to make the pitch, to show off what’s for sale—it’s strong. But it’s wrong.
Lead With the Customer, Not With Yourself
No customer wakes up hoping that a salesperson will call. No one wants to hear about a new solution before their real problem is acknowledged. Leading with “we help companies do X” guarantees indifference. The key is simple: start with the customer’s problem, not your product.
“If you lead with your product instead of a problem, you have got a problem.” Mark Hunter 00:59
When prospecting, the goal isn’t to close. It’s to earn another conversation—a next step. That happens only when the customer sees the discussion as valuable for them, not you.
Questions Beat Pitches, Every Time
Start with a question about an issue the customer likely faces in their industry. That shows understanding, builds credibility, and encourages dialogue. Statements about your company or what you’re selling push prospects away—they don’t need to hear what they can find on your website.
If artificial intelligence can do your job—if you’re just reciting features and benefits—it probably should. Customers want solutions to their challenges, not a laundry list of your offerings.
“If you lead with a product, AI will very quickly replace you. And you deserve to be replaced by AI.” Mark Hunter 03:12
Engaging questions open up conversations. When the customer talks, information flows. That’s where value is created.
Relevance Wins, Every Single Time
Customers are short on time and bombarded with messages. The only way to get their attention is with extreme relevance—touch directly on what matters in their world right now.
A call or email must speak to their burning issue, their industry, or a change affecting their company. And the proof is simple: when relevance is high, response rates jump—conversations flow, follow-ups are enthusiastically received, and true opportunities emerge.
“Lack of relevance kills response rates.” Mark Hunter 15:09
Confirmation Takes a Backseat to Conversation
Proof points—validation, case studies, value statements—have a place. But not up front. They belong later in the process, after a conversation is underway and only as answers to customer questions. Confirm by responding to customer interests, not by leading with the pitch.
The conversation should revolve around them. Always. When the focus stays on their challenges, prospects open up. The conversation gets richer, the follow-up easier, and trust grows.
Don’t Discount—Discover
Pitching products leads to one place: discounting. When the conversation is all about product and price, customers go silent, waiting for the discount. Sales turns desperate. The deal turns into a race to the bottom.
Instead, keep the spotlight on discovery—dig beneath the surface, understand what’s vital, and help the customer see possibilities they hadn’t considered. If a product fits, great. If not, refer out and be remembered as credible.
Make Every Touch Count
Every email, voicemail, and call is an opportunity to prove relevance, ask a meaningful question, and keep the conversation centered on the customer. That is how salespeople become indispensable—by elevating their customers, not themselves.
The best sales relationships are built through dialogue, not decks. Make every interaction about them, and the results will speak for themselves.
Mark Hunter :
What’s the biggest mistake salespeople make today? Let me tell you something. It’s not what you think. And oh, by the way, it does involve you 100%. Yes, it’s a huge mistake. And I just had it called out to me today, in fact, by a prospect I was talking to. Hey, let’s get the show going right now. You’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Marc Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesperson sell with confidence with excellence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.
Mark Hunter :
OK, let me tell you what the answer is, because the question today is the biggest mistake salespeople make. The answer? They lead with themselves and not the customer. Hey, I’ve yet to find a customer that wakes up and says, “Oh boy, I hope a salesperson reaches out to me.” Said no customer ever. Here’s the deal. If you lead with your product instead of a problem, you have got a problem. And that’s the biggest mistake. And this is why, this is why so many salespeople when they’re prospecting get zero response, zero engagement. Now remember, the sales process is broken down into several different steps.
Mark Hunter :
It is not about I’m trying to make contact with you and suddenly get you to buy from me. No, false. I’m trying to make contact with you. And I’m trying to just gain a next step. I’m trying to figure out as to whether or not there’s even a reason for us to have a conversation. I’m trying to give you a little level of confidence, you the customer, that it’s worthy of talking to me. So when you sit there and prospect and you lead with it, “Hey, we help companies do X.” Who really gives a rip? “We sell companies Y.” Who gives a rip? Nobody. You’ve got to lead with a problem.
Mark Hunter :
You see, if you start the call off by pitching, I hope the customer hangs up on you. Because the only way the customer would not stay engaged with you is if for some reason they had this random itch that, boy, you know what? I do want to buy that right now. I do want to buy that right now. But again, that just does not exist to any degree that you think. Now, I’m all about being transparent. I’m not about trying to hide what I do. Remember, I did write the book Integrity First Selling, and I do believe in having integrity, but the integrity is about helping the customer. You see, I want to lead the conversation off with a question or a statement relative to an issue that they are having, they themselves are having.
Mark Hunter :
It’s not about you. Because again, if they want to learn about you, they can probably go to a YouTube video. They can probably go to social media. They can, they can go to your company’s website. They can go into any number of areas. And oh, by the way, if you lead with a product, AI will very quickly replace you. And you deserve to be replaced by AI. You see, today’s customers have challenges.
Mark Hunter :
Today’s customers have problems. But they’re also extremely time constrained. You see, so here’s the situation. I have problem over here on one side and I have lack of time over here. And if I can’t understand how I can help solve my problem, because that’s ultimately, that’s ultimately what corrects time, it really does. Problems, solving problems gives me, gives me more time. So I got to find a way. How do I help you solve your problems? So my initial call, my initial sentence in that email, the initial sentence I leave in the voicemail, The initial question I lead when I get you on the phone is either a question relative to a burning issue that you probably have because you’re in this space that I’m familiar with.
Mark Hunter :
In other words, I’m prospecting within my ICP. Or two, it’s a statement of interest of what’s happening. Now, either one works. But if you sit there and say, “Hi, my name is so-and-so and I’m the account exec.” No, that’s leading with yourself. You see, what happens is we lead with ourself when we initially talk about us or talk about our company or talk about what it is that we sell. We do. The initial conversation must be 100% about the customer. And here’s, here’s what’s interesting.
Mark Hunter :
Regardless of what it is that I sell, if I can engage you in a question or a conversation relative to, to your industry, to what’s pertinent to you, you’ll talk, you’ll communicate. I had that situation play out just this morning. I had several sales calls, and both of them went longer than the 15 minutes I expected. Both of them did. One went 40 minutes and one went probably about 35 minutes because we were able to get into conversations and it had nothing to do with what I sell. But both of them ended up with a clear next step, a very clear next step where both people said, hey, this is great. We do need to talk further. In fact, one of them said, I’m going to send you some information.
Mark Hunter :
I would love to get your feedback on it. Whoa. Wow. Now think about that. I still was not leading with what it is that I sell. Think about this. Salespeople, the number one reason why we are not getting responses is because we lead with ourselves. And, and keep in mind that Because what this is doing is this, this is telling the customer that all you’re doing is, is repeating something that they could go find out on the web very easy, probably, probably faster than listening to you drone on.
Mark Hunter :
And oh, by the way, the longer you drone on, uh, the more you’re going to think that there’s business here, and there isn’t. Yeah, you see, here’s the whole thing. I have to make it about their outcome. This is my whole objective as to why I sell. My whole objective is to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. You know I’ve talked about that a lot. I want you to help— I want you to help see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. It’s not my solution.
Mark Hunter :
If I can help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible, and my solution fits in it, great. We’ve got an opportunity to do business. Now, I may be able to show you how to, how to see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible. And it doesn’t involve me. And then I got to refer you to somebody else. That’s fine. That’s okay. That’s selling with integrity because I’m doing what’s right for the customer.
Mark Hunter :
Stop and think about this. Right now, as I’m recording this, we’re coming right into the end of the quarter. And it feels like every time I turn around, we’re at the end of the quarter. And this is when pitching product becomes more prevalent than ever because we’re racing to try to close this deal. And it does not work. It does not work. I’ve got to engage the customer. Now, what’s absolutely fascinating is I see this When we start getting short time-wise, we focus more heavily on the product, and as a result, we ourselves lose sight of the value we create, and we end up discounting.
Mark Hunter :
We end up discounting. What I found is this: customers are very smart, very smart, and they know once you start pitching product, if, if this is something that they want, they just kind of start going silent. And you’re going to get into this desperation play, and you’re going to wind up talking more price. You are going to wind up talking more price. And what I mean, talking more price, you’re going to wind up discounting. Yeah. And the customer’s sitting there saying, this is, this is great. You see, when I lead with myself I create a major assortment of problems.
Mark Hunter :
The first problem is I’m not able to engage you because you could care less. Second, I never really understand the real value it is that you’re looking for because I haven’t taken the time to ask questions. And three, when I do try to close, I become so fixated on my product and I don’t understand your need. I don’t understand how critical this is to you. So what do I do? I start discounting. Leading with ourself is without a doubt the biggest prospecting mistake salespeople make today. Now, there is a time when you talk about your product. There is a time that you talk about everything.
Mark Hunter :
These are what I call confirming statements. These are, these are proof validations. This is proof of performance. But that does not come out in the prospecting call. Because if it comes out in the prospecting call, I’m desperate. And again, the customer picks up on this. And again, the customer will then only remain engaged with me if they are predestined to buy from me, or, or feel they might be predestined. But this precludes so many other people because, again, I’m prospecting because I want to help you see and achieve what you didn’t think was possible.
Mark Hunter :
And if I have the ability to help someone, I— it’s my obligation to reach out to them. You see what I’m saying here? So I want you to go back and I want you to look at the prospecting emails you send out. I want you to look at the voicemails that you leave. I want you to look at when you get on the phone. And are you leading with a question relative to that’s pertinent to them or their company? Chances are, because you don’t know them, it’s probably going to be about the company or minimally the industry. Or two, are you leading with a critical piece of information? And this is what’s key because in the world that we’re in today, there’s so much volatility. There is so much volatility. Things are changing rapidly in every industry.
Mark Hunter :
So, there’s always an element of news. There’s always something. That I can, that I can share with somebody that’s probably going to pique their interest? And what am I trying to do? I’m just trying to get the conversation going because this is the whole premise of what I’m trying to do with this initial call. Because again, if I lead with the customer’s intent, the customer’s interest in mind, they’re going to be much more likely to talk to me and much more likely to share information with you. I was telling you that I had 2 sales calls this morning. One went about 40 minutes, one went about 35 minutes, and I was expecting both to only go about 15 minutes. In both situations, the customer was probably talking about 70% of the time, 70-75% of the time. I was just asking them some questions about their industry, about what’s happening, what’s critical, and I was getting incredible.
Mark Hunter :
And then, and then they’d share something. Then I would just add another question to it. Or I’d say, you know what? I saw that in another company I was working with. See, what’s very interesting is confirming statements take on the most value when they are used to build on a question that the customer asked. Think about that. Value statements. In other words, you know, when I was working with this company and here, here’s some things that I saw. That takes on a lot more value when I’m using it in response to a question or a statement that they share with me versus me just blurting it out there.
Mark Hunter :
You see, in this situation, what I’m doing is I’m still leading with the customer. I’m getting a chance to share. I’m getting a chance to share. But everything I share builds on whatever it is that they want to say. What’s interesting is both of these sales calls, I went in with a very defined, here’s what I want to get out of it. Here’s what I want to get out of it. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah.
Mark Hunter :
But I had questions I wanted to ask. So naturally I lead with questions and they begin sharing. And then I, we get so far off of my roadmap. It’s unbelievable. But we’re having a great conversation. We’re having a powerful conversation. And what’s interesting is the customer’s never going to hang up on themselves. The customer’s not going to hang up on themselves.
Mark Hunter :
And it’s incredibly valuable. So what is happening here is this. It, it, it’s a very simple thing. I am creating value with the customer. By elevating the customer. And I elevate the customer by encouraging their engagement. And I encourage their engagement because of the questions I ask or the information that I share. In one of these two particular customers I was speaking with on the phone this morning, I shared with them an example of another player in a different industry but similar type of customer experience.
Mark Hunter :
Wow, customer lit up, lit up. It was absolutely fantastic. And when they lit up, what did they do? They began sharing more. And it was interesting, but I immediately, when I got done with the call, I sent them back— both of these customers, I individually, I sent them back a follow-up email kind of here’s some next steps and here’s some additional information. One of them sent me back this long note, hey, thank you so much, incredibly beneficial. I’ve talked to a number of people as I’m trying to find answers, as I’m trying to find solutions, and you clearly understood the business. Truth be known, it wasn’t that I understood the business. I was just taking the time to listen.
Mark Hunter :
And I was elevating the customer. You see, lack of relevance kills response rates. I want you to put that on your desk. A lack of relevance kills response rates. And when you have relevant questions or statements, to them, I guarantee it, you will begin generating a higher response rate. I talk about all of this and more in my book, Integrity First Selling. Hey, if this has resonated with you, hey, first of all, I want you to buy the book. Two, reach out to me, would you? I’d like to have a conversation with you.
Mark Hunter :
Let’s have a conversation with you. I got plenty of additional ideas, plenty of additional thoughts. And if there’s a way that I can help you or your sales team, would love to. Do 2 episodes a week, one like this, second one where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. My whole goal is to help you become the most valuable salesperson out there because you’ve done one thing, you’ve elevated the customers around you. I’m Marc Hunter, The Sales Center. Do subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. Great selling.
